Just the way you are
by Dancingwiththesocks
Summary: Wanting to be more like his positive yellow friend Fear takes his insecurities into his own hands. (A Starnerve fiction!)
**Just to note this is my Starnerve version of Lucky to be different which I contributed too. Hopefully I can write a Starnerve fiction as well as I hopefully write Fear x Anger fictions.**

Since the day he had been born to protect their precious girl Fear had immediately known that Joy was the leader. Everyone in headquarters looked up to her, well some more than others. Unlike the others Joy offered endless amounts of positivity which was something along the line of many other qualities Fear would give anything to have.

Shaken out of his thoughts he was nearly blinded by Joy's overpowering bright golden glow that shone straight through the purple emotion. With his bare hands the nerve was able to carefully catch a few particles of glitter that followed the yellow emotion wherever she went. Stunned by Joy's graceful movements he stood in silence admiring his yellow friend twirling around headquarters, gently humming to herself in delight.

 _Why can't I be more like Joy?_ The purple emotion thought to himself before slowly approaching Joy and her own circle of happiness. "Uh hey Joy" Fear said sheepishly, catching Joy's attention.

"Hey Fear, what's up?" Joy said cheerfully, turning to face Fear who was amazed how even her eyes were just as bright as her cheerful soul.

Fear found himself unable to speak. _Come on say something you worthless coward, no wonder the others think you're pathetic!_ Straightening his bowtie the purple emotion managed to squeeze out a "er how are you so… well…" Fear trailed off, a feeling of miserable disappointment at his own failure.

Joy stood next to Fear waiting for him in a calm manner .

 _Quit the trembling and prove to her there is a backbone to you!_ Forcing himself to stop shaking Fear said with confidence "I know this may sound strange but how do you stay so positive?"

Joy's already dazzling smile grew wide before pulling out a empty small drink from underneath her foot. "My energy drink" Joy pointed out happily.

"But why? You're already so cheerful?" Fear asked, confused at why such a upbeat emotion like her should require an energy drink.

Joy giggled at the purple emotions compliment. "I use it to give me an energy boost when I'm about to exhaust myself" the yellow emotion explained before adding "no wonder I can't sleep at night." Joy giggled to herself, making Fear wanting to try out this drink for himself.

Suddenly Joy turned serious for a split second. "This drink was made to suit my hyperactivity needs, if anyone else was to drink it then let's just say it would make them very hyper".

Inside a cold shiver went through Fear's spine. He stared at the yellow drink bottle before Joy took it with a contagious smile on her lips. Fear watched her skip towards her bedroom door, gracefully opening it and dancing over to her bed. Fear's different sized eyes gazed at the glistening emotion placing the bottle in the mini fridge she used to keep her drinks in.

For the remainder of that Friday evening Fear who was tasked with dream duty spent the time plotting on how he was going to get a sip of that drink without anyone noticing.

 _All I want is to be positive_ Fear thought to himself before tuning in to what dream production had prepared for him.

The following day was a sunny Saturday morning to match the calm atmosphere in headquarters. When the sounds of Joy beautifully playing her accordion, trying to wake up the others Fear took his opportunity and almost racing into Joy's room. Rummaging through the mini fridge Fear found a full bottle of the energy drink, he carefully opened the lid of the bottle to find yellowish liquid sloshing around the bottle. Despite the alarm bells ringing inside his mind Fear grabbed the bottle and took a long sip, to his surprise the drink had a refreshing sweet tangy taste to it.

Meanwhile once Joy had gathered round the emotions she noticed that purple emotion was currently missing.

"Where's Fear?" Joy asked, slightly concerned.

"I haven't seen him anywhere"

"He's probably writing one of his stupid lists"

"Who cares!"

Joy sighed at the unhelpful responses. Deciding to look for the purple emotion herself she told the others to stay put while she searched for the nervous emotion. However at this point the energy that had traveled through Fear's body was starting to take effect, he felt himself wanting to bounce up and down and spin around endlessly.

On the other hand Joy who had searched Fear's room from top to bottom she decided to check her own room just in case he had been startled by her music leading him to hide under her bed. But to her astonishment Fear came whizzing out her bedroom, the drink abandoned on the side of Joys bed, the remains of the liquid dripping on to her bed sheets.

"Hi everyone" Fear said excitedly, waving his arms around expressing how pleased he was to see them. The other emotions however looked anything but pleased.

"What's happened to you?" Sadness asked, her usual sorrowful voice completely ignored by Fear.

"Nothing everythings fine!" Fear replied energetically, now dancing around the other emotions in excitement.

"Stop dancing like that!" Anger yelled.

"You're acting so weird!" Disgust added just as angrily. However Disgust was unexpectedly startled when Fear came rushing up to her before spinning her around, making her feel dizzy.

"It's not weird, I'M HAPPY!" Fear exclaimed cheerfully along with letting out a huge burp. "Whoops." Fear chuckled lightheartedly.

"Ugh!" Disgusted scoffed in response

By now Joy was starting to worry, although she wasn't prepared for what was about to come.

All of a sudden Fear whizzed off towards the console and frantically started pressing buttons. The other emotions all rushed over to the console, each of them tugging at Fear shoulders and arm, desperate for him to let go.

"Fear stop!" Joy shouted which eventually got him to let go.

But the chaos wasn't over yet. Fear had sneaked off after receiving a full on shouting session from Anger and Disgust.

To find somewhere he could calm down away from the current situation Anger stomped off towards the mind manuals when he was the victim of Fears joke of hiding behind a wall before jumping out and yelling "boo!"

A few embers started sizzling on the top of the red emotions head. "What did you do that for!" Anger demanded, balling his fists.

"Made you look, made you scare, made you wet your underwear!" Fear shouted happily before laughing out loud.

 _Scare?_ Was the only word that replayed in the red emotions mind.

By now Joy was at a loss of what to do, while Sadness had kept herself away from the whole drama.

Although Fear appeared to be calmer than before he still felt an urge to jump up and down continuously which made Joy question herself to why he would do Anger was nowhere to be seen which made Joy worry even more.

"Where's Anger?" Joy asked, this time receiving no response.

Suddenly out of the blue Anger had crept up on Fear and roared out the word "BOO!" so loudly that Fear was as still as a statue from the shock before collapsing on the floor.

"Haha it worked!" Anger exclaimed triumphantly.

"Good one" Disgust complemented

"Will he be okay?" Sadness asked with concern.

"Anger!" Joy said in shock while picking up the sprawled ,currently unconscious emotion in her arms.

"What! You would rather have that moron running around like a crazy animal!" Disgust scoffed.

Joy sighed sadly before placing Fear in his own room onto his bed, leaving the purple emotion to recover.

When Fear did wake up to a throbbing sore head and body he slowly got up, holding himself up in agony. Walking up to his bedroom door he heard faint voices outside near the console. Peaking through the tiny gap he had left for himself from the open door, he listened into their conversation.

"I hope he's back to his usual self soon" Sadness said miserably.

"You can say that again, his performance today was embarrassing!" Disgust scoffed.

"I just want him to stay out the way!" Anger growled.

"Guy's! That's not nice, I'm sure there was a reasonable explanation for what he did" Joy said, trying to reason with the others.

On the other hand Fear was trembling at his former friends words. _They're judging me!_ Was the only sentence that came to his mind, just as he was closing the tiny fraction of his bedroom door Joy became aware of his presence and sighed in remorse as she watched him shut his door with pure regret.

After hearing a very unexpected gentle knock on his bedroom door that very evening, Fear was even more flabbergasted to see it was the one and only Joy. Her glow seeming brighter than usual.

"Uh… h-hi" Fear stammered on his words, making it more awkward to speak.

"Hey" Joy replied softly before sitting down next to him on his lavender colored bed sheets.

"Fear I wanted to talk to you about earlier today, why did you take some of my energy drink?" Joy asked kindly.

Fear remained silent for a minute. When he did find the courage to answer her question he was shaking while he spoke.

"Uh… well I did it because I wanted to be more like… you."

Joy put her hand over her mouth for a split second before removing it with a chuckle.

"Oh Fear that's so flattering but you don't need to be like me" Joy said comfortingly.

Surprised at how forgiving the yellow emotion seemed to be, a single tear of relief made its way from Fear's eye all the way down to the end of his cheek which Joy was quick to wipe away.

"Hey" Joy cooed before embracing Fear in a light hug. "You don't need to change" she added softly.

"I- I don't?" Fear questioned nervously, "but all I am is a coward who runs around headquarters like crazy" he added in a firmer tone of voice.

"But that's what makes you you!" Joy exclaimed. "You're perfect just the way you are" Joy then said in an even softer tone before gently kissing the purple emotion on the cheek.

Totally stunned at what Joy had just done made Fear giggle sheepishly which the yellow emotion responded to with a squeal of glee.

"Tomorrow will be another perfect day I promise" were Joy's last words before running over to give the thin emotion another quick hug.

As Joy left the room Fear was stood on the spot, speechless at what had just happened. _Just as I thought she couldn't get any brighter._

Fear sighed peacefully at the glowing angel he called Joy.


End file.
